1 9 8 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



It is preyed upon by several commercially important fishes, especially the seatrouts 

 {Cynoscion). Water birds also feed on it extensively. 



Range. Plentiful from Chesapeake Bay to the West Indies; north irregularly to 

 southern New England and as a stray to Maine and the outer coast of Nova Scotia; 

 south at least as far as Montevideo, Uruguay. It has also been recorded for Cape 

 Verde, Africa, but that record is in need of verification. 



In some years it is numerous at Beaufort, North Carolina, appearing in large 

 schools, but in other years less abundant. At Beaufort and in Chesapeake Bay it was 

 taken chiefly with seines near the shore and rarely with trawls in somewhat deeper 

 water; however, in the Gulf of Mexico it was taken in deeper water more commonly. 

 Collections made with otter trawls, some of them in water as much as 30—40 fms. 

 deep, are at hand from off Corpus Christi, Texas, off Grand Isle, Louisiana, and off 

 St. Vincent Island and Apalachicola Bay, Florida. 



Details of Occurrence.^ Stray specimens of this Anchovy were reported for Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia, In 1931 {21 : 3), and for the mouth of the Penobscot River, Maine, 

 in 1930, when many others were reported as seen {8). The next most northerly 

 locality of record is the vicinity of Woods Hole, southern Massachusetts, where 

 it has been reported as abundant, at least in some years. But only one specimen 

 of this particular Anchovy has been reported for Rhode Island. It is less common 

 in New York waters than its relative mitchilU (p. 179), but it has been reported as 

 being locally abundant there; this applies equally to New Jersey waters and to Ches- 

 apeake Bay as a whole. 



Farther to the south, hepsetus appears in large schools in some years along the 

 coast of North Carolina (see above), where mitchiUi has been reported only once (p. 1 79). 

 It is known from Georgia, the Florida Keys region, various localities along the western 

 coast of Florida from Cape Sable to Pensacola, the coast of Mississippi, Grand Isle 

 and Cameron, Louisiana, Galveston and Mustang Island, Texas, on the Mexican 

 coast off Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Yucatan, and the Atlantic coast of Panama. It is 

 widespread throughout the West Indies also, where it has been recorded for the 

 northern coast of Cuba, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, 

 Cura9ao, St. Kitts, Martinique, and Barbados. On the coast of Brazil it is known at 

 Mamanguape (near Pernambuco), Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro. 



Synonyms and References: 



Esox hepsetus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1758: 314 (diagn.; type local. "America"; ref's. to 'Piquitinga' 



Marcgrave, Brazil, and Menidia Browne, Jamaica, non binomials). 

 Atherina epsetus Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encyc. Meth. IchthyoL, 1788: 175 (descr., same fin ray counts as Linnaeus; 



ref. to Linnaeus, but apparently not ed. 10). 

 Atherina brownii Gmelin, Syst. Nat., j, 1788: 1397 (based on Menidia Browne, pre-Linnaean). 

 C/itpea vittata Mitchill, Trans. Lit. philos. Soc. N. Y., j, 1 8 1 5 : 456 (orig. descr.; type local. New York; type 



lost); De Kay, New York Fauna, Ft. 4: Fishes, 1842: 254 (descr.); Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci., 



1846: 205, in separate (brief descr.. New York). 

 Engraulis brownii Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 21, 1848: 41 (descr.. New York, West Indian 



8. Added by H. B. Bigelow. 



